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19 years in coma, worker wakes to capitalist Poland

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 4, 2007

WARSAW, Poland - A railway worker who emerged from a 19-year coma woke to a radically altered Poland and is learning to adapt to his new life, Polish media reported.

"I wake up at 7 a.m. and I watch TV, " Jan Grzewski, 65, told TVN24 Television over the weekend, smiling slightly as he lay in bed at his home in the northern city of Dzialdowo.

"I could not talk or do anything, now it's much better, " he said in a weak but clear voice.

Wojciech Pstragowski, a rehabilitation specialist, said Grzewski was shocked at the changes in Poland's economy - especially its stores: "He remembered shelves filled with mustard and vinegar only" under communism.

Poland shed communism in 1989 and has developed democracy and a market economy.

In 1988, Grzewski fell into a coma after he was injured attaching two train carriages. Doctors also found cancer in his brain and said he would not live, according to the local daily Gazeta Dzialdowska.

When doctors could do no more, Grzewski's wife, Gertruda, took him home and cared for him, Gazeta said.

"I believed Janek would recover, " she said, using an affectionate version of his name.

Last year, she noticed that he was trying to speak, Gazeta said. He returned to the hospital and came out of the coma about two months ago.

[Last modified June 4, 2007, 01:47:17]